A tanker carrying roughly 700,000 barrels of American crude has arrived in Greece for the first time in about four years...

A tanker carrying roughly 700,000 barrels of American crude has arrived in Greece for the first time in about four years, a direct consequence of the war between the US, Israel, and Iran disrupting oil supply routes across the Middle East. The Isle of Man-flagged tanker Eagle Helsinki loaded WTI Midland crude at a terminal in Houston, Texas, and anchored at Agio Theodoroi near Corinth, according to ship tracking data from Kpler and maritime platform Signal Ocean. The vessel initially signaled Rotterdam as its destination before changing course mid-Atlantic, diverting through Gibraltar and into the Mediterranean toward Greece. The cargo is headed for Motor Oil's refinery in Corinth, Greece's second largest, which handles more than a third of the country's total refining capacity. The facility typically sources a significant portion of its crude from Iraq's Basrah fields, but reduced traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has forced refiners across the region to look elsewhere. Motor Oil declined to comment on the shipment. WTI Midland is the flagship American light sweet crude and a benchmark for US oil exports. The rerouting of this cargo mid-ocean reflects how sharply the conflict in the Middle East has fractured global energy trade flows, pushing European refiners to tap American supply chains they had largely stepped away from since 2022. Greece's refining sector is now feeling the pressure in real time, and this shipment may signal a broader, longer-term shift in where Greek refiners source their crude if the Hormuz situation does not stabilize. #Greece #Energy #OilMarkets